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The Implementation/Execution Phase of the Project
During the Implementation Phase of a project you have to
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Manage a Team of People
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Develop a monitoring system to control schedule, resources, and expected outcome.
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Demonstrate evaluation and review techniques of cost management systems.
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Manage and Lead
1.24.1.D - Work Performance Information (WPI)
Work Performance Information is a primary input into controlling processes. WPI is a general term for any and all information regarding the status of project activities and deliverables and may include:
· Start and end dates of completed schedule activities,
· Start date, % complete and estimated completion dates of incomplete activities,
· Quality metrics of completed deliverables,
· Actual and current estimated costs of completed and in-progress activities and deliverables,
· Resource utilization, and
· And anything else you can think of.
1.25.0.D -- Manage and Control Project Work
Earned Value Management (or Earned Value Technique):
Earned Value Management (EVM) is a tool use in the Manage and Control Project Work Process and is also known as Earned Value Technique. The concept of value to the customer is expressed in work, time, and Cost. The work of the project (deliverables) represents “value” to the buyer (customer, sponsor). Value is determined at project start (budget). EVM assesses progress of deliverables against the agreed to schedule and cost. The “formulas” are part of the PMP Exam.
On chart: PV = BCWS and AC = ACWP
Budgeted At Completion (BAC) (as used for the PMP):
BAC is derived by looking at the total budget cost for the project and tells the PM the original planned cost for this project. Also known as BCAC or Budgeted Cost at Completion.
Example: The project is for 20 fast computers at $5,000 a computer. The BAC = 20 x $5,000.oo = $100,000.oo.
Budgeted At Completion (BAC), or Total Project Budget, or Budgeted Cost at Completion (BCAC) = $100k
Planned Value (PV) (as used for the PMP):
PV tells the PM how much work should have been completed at a point in time based on the plan. PV is the planned percentage complete times (x) the BAC. PV is also know as BCWS or Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled.
Example: The project plan was to have 14 computers completed by today which is 70% complete therefore PV = 70% x $100,000.oo = $70,000.oo.
Planned Value (PV) or Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled: BCWS = $70,000
Actual Cost (AC) (as used for the PMP):
AC tells the PM how much money has been spent during a given period of time. AC is calculated by the sum of costs for the given period of time. Also known as ACWP or Actual Cost of Work Performed.
Example: The project has use 85% of the funds available or $85,000. Therefore AC = $85,000.oo.
Actual Cost (AC) or Actual Cost for Work Performed (ACWP) = $85k
Earned Value (EV) (as used for the PMP):
EV tells the PM how much work was actually been completed during a given point in time. It is derived by measuring where the project is in terms of work completed based on the point in time on the schedule. Also know as BCWP or Budgeted Cost of Work Performed.
Example: The project is 60% complete (don't worry it is just pretend - 12 computers have been built) therefore EV = 60% x $100,000.oo = $60,000.oo.
Earned Value (EV) or Budgeted Cost for Work Performed (BCWP) = $60,000.oo
On the chart: BAC = BCAC = $100K; AC = ACWP = $85K;
EV = BCWP = $60K; PV = BCWS = $70K
SV = $-10K; CV = $-25K
Three of the Types of Variances Used in Earned Value Analysis:
Schedule Variance (SV) (as used for the PMP):
SV tells the PM the difference between where the plan says should be and where we are in the schedule.
SV = EV - PV.
Example: The EV = $60K and the PV = $70K, Therefore the SV = $60K - $70K = $-10K. Not good (late is negative). Note, time is measured in dollars.
Cost Variance (CV) (as used for the PMP):
CV tells the PM the difference between what the plan say is should have cost us and how much we actually spent.
CV = EV - AC.
Example: The EV = $60K and the AC = $85K, Therefore the CV = $60K - $85K = $-25K. Not good (late is an overrun). Note, this time dollars is measured in dollars.
Performance Indices to Assess Project’s Progress:
Here variances are also formulated as ratios rather than differences. Good when comparing different projects.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI ) (as used for the PMP):
SPI is the rate at which the project performance is meeting schedule expectations at a point in time.
SPI = EV/PV
Example: The EV = $60K and the PV = $70K, therefore the SPI = 60/70 = .86 (less than one is not good).
Cost Performance Index (CPI) (as used for the PMP):
CPI is the rate at which the project performance is meeting cost expectations at a point in time.
CPI = EV/AC
Example: The EV = $60K and the AC = $85K, therefore the SPI = 60/85 = .71 (less than one is not good).
Cumulative CPI (CPI C) (as used for the PMP):
The Cumulative CPI is the rate at which the project performance is meeting cost expectations From the Beginning up to a point in time. It is best done with a table of all the measures over time (i.e., weekly/monthly). It is also use to forecast project costs at completion.
CPI C = Cumulative EV /Cumulative AC
On The Chart: EAC = FCAC; ETC = FCTC
Estimate At Completion (EAC) (as used for the PMP):
EAC projects the total cost at completion based on project performance up to a specific date.
EAC = BAC/Cumulative CPI .
Estimate To Completion (ETC) (as used for the PMP).
ETC projects future spending on the project based on past performance.
ETC = EAC - AC
Variance At Completion (VAC) (as used for the PMP)
VAC is the difference between what was budgeted and what will actually be spent.
VAC = BAC - EAC
Other Measures
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Accounting Variance (AV) = PV - AC
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STWP - scheduled time for work performed
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ATWP - actual time of work performed
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TPI (Time Performance Index) = STWP / ATWP
Control Accounts:
Control Accounts are management control points where scope, budget, actual cost and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance measurement. It would take too much time and money to do Earned Value Analysis for every work package. So only critical parts of the project WBS will be monitored & controlled using EVA. The Control Account Plan (CAP) documents places on the WBS where caps will be applied to scope, schedule, and budget amounts on all of the WBS identified control points.
2.0 - Scope Management:
Scope Management includes project as well as product scope. Poor scope management is a primary cause in project schedule and budget overruns. Ensuring the project includes all the work and only the work required to be successful. The project scope should be:
1. Documented
2. Well defined
3. Clearly understood
4. Achievable
Shortcuts in this knowledge area are most dangerous therefore Project Managers must identify, validate, verify scope and influence and control changes as they occur.
2.27.0.P Scope Control
Performance Reports
Performance Reports are the compilation, analysis, summarization & presentation of project results and are outputs of Performance Reporting.
2.27.1.D - New Project Work (NPW):
Additional work on the project may be a result of the following items. Each of the following must be processed in the sequence below:
1. Recommended
2. Approved
3. Implemented
Change Requests:
Are requests to modify the project (including product) scope, processes, plan, policies, procedures, costs, budgets or schedule.
Corrective Action:
Any activity taken as a result of a variance from the PM Plan that will bring future results in line with the plan.
Preventative Action:
Any activity that can reduce the probability of negative consequences associated with project risks.
Defect Repair:
Activity resulting from identification of a defect in a project component. Involves repair of the defect or replacement of the component.
The Concept of Triple Constraints:
There are three very important parts to a project, Time, Cost, and Functionality. (or some say Scope or Performance/Technology). Change to any one aspect will effect at least one other (quality, customer satisfaction, or risk may also be effected). When Scope is in question, do what is best for the customer with all other things being equal. However, a good rule to follow may be this. If a customer wants to change one constraint always control of the other two constraints.
Harold Kerzner, Project Management, A systems approach to Planning Scheduling and Controlling, Seventh Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2001
3.29.0.P - Schedule Control:
The Schedule Management Plan:
The Schedule Management Plan was produced during the Develop Project Management Plan Process. It guides execution of all time management processes and may include:
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Network diagramming instructions
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Rules for dependency determination
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Precision level required for duration estimates
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Scheduling units (i.e. hours, days, weeks, etc.)
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Process for managing schedule changes/updates Time
Schedule Change Control System:
Procedures by which the project schedule may be changed including documentation, tracking systems, and approval level.
Performance Measurement:
Performance measures include using metrics such as SV and SPI to determine if project is with acceptable performance tolerances. Helps identify variances before they create major project impacts. Also go to see the seven steps to performance measures.
Variance Analysis:
A variance is a deviation from the expected or planned event. The variance analysis is comparing planned schedule dates vs. actual start and finish dates and investigating the cause and impact of the deviation.
Progress Reporting:
Providing information to project stakeholders should be presented in a consistent format to facilitate periodic comparisons. The progress reports will include measures such as:
· Actual start/finish dates
· Remaining duration
· Percent complete
4.30.0.P -- Cost Control:
Performance Measurement Analysis:
Performance measurement analysis is a tool used in the Cost Control Process for developing key values for monitoring and controlling each schedule activity, work package or control account (e.g. PV, EV, AC, ETC, CV, SV, CPI, SPI). It helps assess the magnitude of any variance. This is important for the project manager must determine the cause of any variance.
Forecasting:
Forecasting is a tool of the Cost Control Process for making estimates or predictions about the projects future based on information available at the time of the forecast.
Project Performance Reviews
Project Performance Reviews are meetings to assess the progress of schedule activities, work packages, or control accounts. The reviews often use variance analysis, trend analysis or earned value techniques.
Cost Estimate Updates:
Cost Estimate Updates are outputs of the Cost Control Process that explain any change in cost information used to manage the project. Appropriate stakeholders should be notified because some changes may drive adjustments to project scope, schedule, quality, staffing.
Cost Baseline Updates:
Cost Baselines Updates are outputs of the Cost Control Process. Cost Baselines are generally updated only in response to an approved changes in project scope. For large variances may required rebaselining.
8.0 -- Communication Management:
The communication management knowledge area includes processes to address the timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, and retrieval of project information. It includes communication with all stakeholders (but especially project team, senior management, customer and sponsor). Some say it is the most important skill for a PM to have. PM spend up to 90% of their time communicating and therefore PMs must communicate:
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Directly (always deal with the problem)
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Truthfully (the whole truth)
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Accurately (even if you don’t believe it)
From the words of Jerry Westbrook
"The Number One Enemy of Good Quality Are the Words,
I Think and I Know."
Records Management and Communications:
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Communication Records web link Website Owner; Internal Revenue
Service
http://www.irs.gov/irm/part1/ch12s49.html, This website explains records management and descriptions and authorities for communication records management. Frank Merrell, UoP 2005
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Implementation (Execution) Phase By Ulysses M. Minor (MBA Student, UoPhx, 2007)
Definition
The Implementation phase involves
executing the tasks outlined in the Planning phase.
As the phase unfolds, establishing control
methods that compare the planned and actual project
outcomes are necessary to ensure that the project
meets time, budget, and resource constraints.
The project manager must report the variances
found to the project team and stakeholders to
maintain project integrity.
Furthermore, the project manager must work
closely with all involved to design action plans
that address the variances so that the project can
maintain its scope or readily adapt to any
unpredicted scope changes.
A sample checklist that a project manager may
use to track a project during this phase follows:
Action Items:
Common PLC Project
Version 6.0
12-11-03
(Table from
www.projectconnections.com, 2006, p.1).
Implementation
Project
Monitoring System
Much of the success a project may enjoy
does not lie in executing the tasks, but in
monitoring the effect that the executed tasks yield.
An effective project monitoring system helps
the Implementation phase achieve its maximum
potential.
Gray and Larson contend, “A project
monitoring system involves determining what data to
collect; how, when and who will collect the data;
analysis of the data; and reporting current
progress” (Gray and Larson, 2005, p.411).
Metrics set by the project team determines
data collection.
The team should design a system or use a
software package that helps collect and analyze this
data.
In terms of reporting, the following format
addresses the major reporting concerns of this
phase:
§
Progress since last
report
§
Current status of
project
o
Schedule
o
Cost
o
Scope
§
Cumulative Trends
§
Problems and issues
since last report
o
Actions and
resolutions of earlier problems
o
New variances and
problems identified
§
Corrective action
planned (Gray and Larson, 2005, p.412).
If the team masters this
system, the project control process becomes easier
and more visible.
Project
Control Process
Project Control Process (PCP) is the act of
evaluating actual project performance against the
set plan to find deviations, evaluate alternate
action courses, and implement the corrective action.
This process involves the following steps:
Using the
Earned Value System
So far, the systems introduced to monitor
time and budget are functional yet cannot yield
their full potential without integration.
The Earned Value System (EVS), developed by
the U.S. Department of Defense, attempts to overcome
the ineffectiveness of using non-integrated systems
to monitor progress.
Gray and Larson contend, “Without
time-phasing of costs to match scheduled activities,
cost control cannot yield information that is
reliable for control purposes” (Gray and Larson,
2005, p.417).
The project budget baseline, which consists
of the time-phased costs, gives the EVS its starting
point, the planned value (PV).
This information can help the project manager
make comparisons between actual and planned schedule
using the notion of earned value.
Data derived from the WBS, project network
and schedule provides the bulk of the information
used by the system.
As a result, the system produces cost and
schedule variances, which is useful for determining
project outcome and status.
Using this system affords the project manager
the flexibility of monitoring the project at any
time, which gives the entire project agility and
momentum.
The driving force behind the EVS is the
Percent Complete Rule.
This rule assigns costs to the baseline and
establishes milestones across the work package, then
attaches completion percentages in dollars (Gray and
Larson, 2005, p.421).
For instance, a factory measures progress by
each a box of goods processed at a rate of $10 in
labor per box.
At the end of the day, the factory manager
can determine labor and production by either looking
at boxes produced or by the labor dollars used.
Then, the manager compares the actual results
to the planned budget and makes any necessary
adjustments.
Analyzing
Variances
A project manager must understand the
variances in order to take action.
Positive variances mean that the project is
going well, while negative variances indicate
problems.
Determining variance involves comparing
earned value with schedule value, and comparing
earned with actual costs.
The schedule and cost variances (SV and CV)
can be determined by assessing planned cost (PV),
budgeted cost of completed work (EV), and actual
cost of work completed (AC).
CV shows whether costs exceeded
or fell short of planned costs.
SV indicates the progress of the work
packages in WBS in relation to their scheduled
dates.
Dollars are the SV unit instead of time (Gray and
Larson, 2005, p.421).
Project managers must ensure that the SV does
not determine the timeliness of the critical path.
Only comparing planned and actual schedules
makes this determination.
In addition, using Cost Performance Index
(CPI = EV/AC) and Scheduling Performance Index (SPI
= EV/PV) determine the efficiency for each element.
Relation to
the Project
According to Donald Geigrich, using project
control helps to identify precursors to following
items that impact cost, schedule and quality on a
construction project:
The most threatening of these
is scope changes.
The year 2007 will see building materials
cost, other than lumber, rise 6 to 8 percent, which
economist believe to be twice the rate of inflation
(www.kansas.com,
2007, p.5).
Through 2006, the price increase for these
materials caused many industries to halt or trim
down the scope of their construction projects (www.alaskanjournal.com,
2007, p.9).
However, managing the execution phase using
the tenets described above will help create a
strategy to decrease the likelihood of major scope
changes caused by unforeseen conditions such as
price increases in mid-project.
Summary
The Implementation phase carries out the
objectives outlined in the Planning phase.
Creating an Integrated Project Monitoring
System helps the project manager monitor time and
resources used, and report the findings to the team
and stakeholders. Using the Earned Value System
helps identify variances between the actual and
scheduled plans.
Finally, analyzing the variances and taking
action helps reduce the likelihood of making major
changes to the project scope.
References
Giegerich, D. B. (2002). Early
warning signs of troubled projects.
Transactions
of AACE
International, 02.
Gray, C.F. and Larson, E.W.
(2005).
Project Management:
The Managerial Process.
3rd
Ed.
McGraw-Hill.
www.alaskanjournal.com. (2007).
Construction spending predicted to jump to
$7B in
’07.
Retrieved February 24, 2007 from
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/021107/hom_20070211005.shtml.
www.kansas.com.
(2007).
Lumber costs fall; other building materials rise.
Retrieved
February 24, 2007 from
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/business/16467881.htm.
www.projectconnections.com (2007).
Execution phase checklist.
Retrieved February 24,
2007 from
www.projectconnections.com.
Implementation Phase
After the planning phase is
complete, the team is ready to start implementing
their project.
Implementing their project refers to the
final process of moving the solution from
development status to production status (www.lifecyclestep.com).
This is where the project is developed and
where the team will spend most of their time.
One of the most important things in the
implementation phase is discipline.
Discipline is important in executing the
tasks from the planning phase.
Without discipline, it is difficult to stay
on schedule and within budget.
In order for the team to be
successful in implementing their project, the
project must identify four critical processes.
The processes are change management, risk
management, performance measures, and a phase
review.
Each process is important in order to achieve the
outcome desired.
Change
management is important because of the many
changes that occur in the business environment.
By having an effective change management
process, the manager can decrease the impact of any
changes, identify risks due to change, and control
the costs.
The team can accomplish all of these things
by following the processes of change management.
The first step to making changes
is identifying what they are.
Once the project manager identifies the
changes, a team member will record and describe the
impacts of the change.
Process 2: Review Change
This step consists of reviewing
the impact and identifying the reason for change.
While reviewing, the project manager will
determine if the change will affect the delivery of
the project.
If so, the project manager will have to seek
approval to make the changes.
Process 3: Approve Change
During this step, the project
board determines whether the team should move
forward.
They make the decision based on the level of risk,
impact, benefits, and costs that the change has on
the project (www.method123.com
).
Process 4: Implement Change
In the last step of change, the
project manager approves and changes and the project
continues.
After implementing the change, the manager
will evaluate the effects the change had on the
project.
They want to make sure that they achieved their
desired outcome.
Risk
Management is important because it helps us find
ways to manage events that will negatively affect
the financial, physical, or human capital of an
organization (www.army.mil).
Risk management can prevent business risks
such as:
In order to prevent these risks,
it is imperative to develop good prevention
strategies.
A good strategy will prevent or minimize the
impact it will have on a project.
Performance
Measures give life to the mission, vision, and
strategy by providing a focus that lets each
employee know how they contribute to the success of
the company and its stakeholders’ measurable
expectations (Artley, Stroh, 2002).
It develops
measurable indicators to track and evaluate progress
in achieving goals, providing feedback, and gaining
insight to management. One the measurable indicators
that project managers use is the monitoring system.
The monitoring system will help the manager
track their team’s progress.
They will be able to determine the:
By using these performance
measures, the project manager will know how well the
project is going, if they are meeting their goals,
if improvements are necessary, etc.
Not only are performance measures important,
but the communication of them are critical.
It is important for the project manager to
inform their team on their expectations.
They can accomplish by having a meeting, a
conference call, through email, etc.
Whatever it takes to get the job done, they
should do.
Performance measures are an asset to a
project.
They keep everyone focused on accomplishing the task
Phase Review ensures that all of
the required tasks are complete.
After the review, the project manager will
determine if the project is ready to close.
If the team completes the above steps, then
their chances of achieving a successful project
delivery are high.
References:
www.lifecyclestep.com (2003-2005).
Implement.
Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from
http://www.lifecyclestep.com/open/450.0Implementation.htm
www.method123.com (2006). Performing Change Management. Retrieved on February 27, 2007 from http://www.method123.com/articles/2006/12/11/ChangeManagement/
www.army.mil (2007).
Risk Mitigation.
Retrieved on February 28, 2007 from
http://www.army.mil/armybtkc/focus/cpi/risk.htm
Artley, Will, Stroh, Suzanne
(2001).
Establishing an Integrated Performance Measurement
System, The
Performance-Based Management Handbook.
Vol.2,
pg. 1
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